Police: Evidence criminal act may have led to Canada train crash

Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Edward Burkhardt, CEO of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railways Inc., speaks on Wednesday, July 10, during a news conference. A train with 72 tanker cars carrying crude oil barreled down the track before derailing and exploding in Lac -Megantic, Quebec, on Saturday, July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A woman takes a photo of the devastation on Tuesday, July 9.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A police officer surveys the damage. At least 15 people were killed and another 45 remain missing after the weekend crash, authorities said. Those still missing are feared dead, possibly vaporized by the resulting inferno, according to some experts.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Residents leave a convenience store in a part of Lac Megantic that reopened on July 9.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A worker reconnects wires on July 9.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Train wreckage is pictured in Lac Megantic, Quebec, on July 9.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – An emergency worker works at the site of the train wreckage on July 9.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Burned tanker cars are scattered on the tracks in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, on Monday, July 8.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A man collects oil floating on the Chaudiere River near Lac-Megantic on July 8.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Derailed rail cars sit in mud and oil in Lac-Megantic on July 8, in this handout image released by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A man consoles a woman on July 8 at the Polyvalente Montignac, the school used as a shelter for evacuated Lac-Megantic residents.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, second left, observes the site of the explosion on Sunday, July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters continue to douse burning wreckage on July 7 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – People cry and hug each other on July 7 while they sit on the grass at the Polyvalente Montignac, the school sheltering the people who were forced to leave their houses.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters continue to water smoldering rubble on July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A concerned resident waits near an aid station on July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A view of the town from a lookout point at Lac Megantic, Quebec, July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters walk past a burnt out vehicle near the train derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec, July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Melted siding on a home is seen near the scene of a train derailment in Lac Megantic, Quebec, July 7.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Smoke billows from a fire at the site of a train derailment on Saturday, July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters walk past derailed cars on July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters work to put out fires at the wreckage of the train in Lac-Megantic on July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – A firefighter walks past the remains of buildings in Lac-Megantic on July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Smoke rises in the background as Quebec Premier Pauline Marois speaks to reporters in Lac-Megantic on July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters douse flames after the derailment on July 6.

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Train derails, explodes in Canadian town – Firefighters battle fires in Lac-Megantic on July 6.

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Story highlights

Evidence that a criminal act may have led to train incident, provincial police captain says

At least 15 people are dead and 35 are still missing, according to captain

Some residents of the town are allowed to return home, officials say

Canadian authorities have found evidence that a criminal act may have led to a train crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed at least 15 people, provincial police Capt. Michel Forget said Tuesday.

There have been many questions about the crash and explosion that wiped out a swath of the town 130 miles east of Montreal. As of Tuesday evening, 35 people were still missing, Forget said.

Authorities offered no further details about the case but said it was not caused by terrorism.

"I will not speculate on the elements that we have recovered," Forget told reporters.

Investigators had earlier said that they are trying to figure out whether the train's brakes were disabled before it barreled at a dangerous speed into the Quebec town, derailed and burst into a deadly inferno.

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Firefighters in the nearby town of Nantes put out a separate blaze on the train shortly before it crashed into Lac-Megantic early Saturday. Ed Burkhardt, chief executive officer and president of Rail World, the parent company of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, has told media outlets there's evidence the engine powering the brakes was shut down at some point.

Pressed to elaborate by CTV, Burkhardt wrote Tuesday in an e-mail exchange, "We are now aware the firefighters shut down the locomotive. By the time (Montreal, Maine & Atlantic) people found out, it was too late."

In earlier comments to the Montreal Gazette, he said the matter needs further investigation, and his company has begun an internal inquiry.

"There are a number of missing pieces here," Burkhardt told the paper, saying he didn't suspect "the event was malicious or an act of terrorism."

The company did not immediately return phone calls from CNN about the report.

Asked during an earlier news conference whether authorities suspected sabotage, Ed Belkaloul, manager of rail operations for Canada's Transportation Safety Board's eastern region, said there was no evidence to that effect.

The train began rolling -- unbeknownst to dispatchers and rail traffic controllers -- about an hour after the fire in Nantes was reported. It picked up speed because the track between Nantes and Lac-Megantic lies on a 1.2% downward slope, which Belkaloul said is relatively steep.

"On the principal lines, as soon as there is an uncontrolled movement, the controllers of rail traffic can see that there is an uncontrolled movement," Belkaloul said. But on smaller lines like the one between Nantes and Lac-Megantic, "there is no way for the dispatcher or the controller to realize that there is an uncontrolled movement."

Officials in Lac-Megantic say some victims were likely vaporized by the intense blaze, which burned for 36 hours after the crash.

The fire is under control, authorities said Tuesday morning. Of the roughly 2,000 residents evacuated, about 1,200 will be permitted to return home immediately. Another 800 cannot go back yet, the officials said.

Notices were placed on doors instructing residents how to clean and air out their homes. Officials suggested throwing out any food and boiling all water because the city's water treatment plant is not operational.

Firefighters are now using infrared detectors to find any remaining hot spots in the wreckage. They've stopped hosing down the area because it was inhibiting the investigation, officials said.

Rolling oil bomb?

The train had already been on fire hours before the Saturday accident, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported, sourcing fire officials. Firefighters in the town of Nantes, seven miles northwest of Lac-Megantic, extinguished a small blaze on the freight train.

When they left, the train was still parked where it was supposed to stay for the night, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway said.

Earlier, the company said air brakes holding the train in place failed, allowing it to barrel downhill into Lac-Megantic. It was not clear if Rail World executive Burkhardt was suggesting to CTV that firefighters were responsible for disabling the brakes, but he told Reuters earlier that the brakes were disabled when firefighters shut down the engine powering them.

Investigators plan to check the brakes once the crumpled, burned tankers are accessible.

The train rolled into town much faster than a train under an engineer's control would have.

"Usually they're traveling between 5 and 10 miles an hour," said Quebec police officer Benoit Richard. "On that night, this train was going at least between 30 and 40 miles an hour."

Sonia Pepin recalls hearing the train like never before. The tracks are a few feet from her home, and her whole house shook, she said.

Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found the locomotive event recorder, which they can analyze for information on throttle position and speed, among other data.

Oil transport safe?

Petroleum products have increasingly been transported via rail in the past five years, according to the railroad industry, and Canada has had multiple issues with derailments in recent months.

Last month, four Canadian Pacific rail cars carrying flammable petrochemicals used to dilute oil derailed on a flood-damaged bridge spanning Calgary's Bow River, according to the Calgary Herald.

In another incident involving Canadian Pacific, five tankers containing oil derailed in rural Saskatchewan in May, spilling 575 barrels of crude, the Toronto Sun reported.

A month earlier, 22 Canadian Pacific rail cars jumped the tracks near White River, Ontario. Two of the cars leaked about 400 barrels -- almost 17,000 gallons -- of oil, The Globe and Mail in Toronto reported.

Canadian Pacific was also involved in a stateside spill in March. Fourteen cars on a mile-long, 94-car train derailed in western Minnesota, about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis, spilling about 30,000 gallons of crude, Reuters reported.

A rail car can carry roughly 700 barrels of oil, with 42 gallons per barrel.